Pile of Progress

I've decided to be more positive and complain less.  Part of that is finding the silver lining of everything.  Practically I've been active with my Pile I spoke of in my previous post.  My cousin, who also blogs, posted her pile and we are now knocking our piles down simultaneously.  I love the accountability.  To add to the accountability, I'm going to try to post my progress here.  (See, I'm being positive already--knowing I'll be successful.) 

I am still having trouble posting pictures from my computer, so I cannot post a picture of the bag I made.  Remember the rug that I wanted to turn into a bag?  Well, it was part of my Pile, but now it is part of my success!  While crafting is fun for me, it also occupies much of my desktop now, so my thinking is that getting that part reduced, I'll have more room to do the less desirable projects (scrapbooking for school and school records to Excel). 

Guess I need to add, "contact Blogger regarding posting pictures".  :)

Here you can see the side panels I made.

Yeah!  I figured out the problem with posting pictures.  Well, not actually, but I found another way! 

Piles of Intentions

You know the saying about a particular road being paved with good intentions? According to Wikipedia it is thought to have originated with Saint Bernard of Clairvaux who wrote, "L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs" (hell is full of good wishes and desires). Meaning for me that all the piles of my intentions to do something doesn't amount to much if I don't do it.
 
January, in my administrative-minded circles of friends, is the month to organize and knock down these piles to nothing.  I am never sure that my piles diminish completely, rather they morph into different sizes, compilations and corners.  What would I do if I had nothing to tackle?  No To Do list?  I would ask myself what I wanted to do.  Next I'd make a list of how to get it done.  Am I sick? 

(I have taken photographs of some of my piles with the intention to post them and then talk about my specific piles.  My hope was that I could show myself progressing as I tackled these piles.  Ironically, Blogger is not cooperating by not giving me the button to browse my files to show you the pictures.) 

It's in the Bag

I failed miserably at taking photos of family that came to visit over the last couple of weeks, which is terrible since I only get to visit with some of them only once a year.  Our kids grow and noticeably chance over the course of a year and it is hard for them to sometimes remember who is who, or which cousin belongs to which cousin.  Maybe I'll get that right next Christmas. 

What I DID manage to take pictures of was some of my post-holiday yarn projects.  My inspiration came by way of a new knitting pattern book.  I dug out my yarn stash from the closet and after making a mental inventory, I jumped in with both needles or hook in this case.  I couldn't justify buying yarn (I know some of you are scratching your heads or laughing at me now.) when I had more than a few unfinished projects and lots of leftover yarn.  I chose to pick up an old rug project that didn't get finished through 2 moves, a new marriage and a new home which the rug no longer coordinated with. 

I crocheted some sides to allow more space in the bag and handles.  I dug through the material stash and found some coordinating red and green fabric to make a lining.  I can't decide if I need to add fabric to the backside of the handles to prevent stretching yet.  I have never run yarn through my sewing machine, but I am leaning toward maching stitching the lining to the bag and then crocheting the bag together in pieces.  Comments leaving tips or cautions are most welcome!  I doubt I get to putting the bag together until later in the week, possibly even next week.

During the month of November, I instructed some newbie crocheters to make washclothes.  I ended up with a lot of leftover cotton yarn so I decided to put together a bag I'd found in a Lion Brand Yarn newsletter.  (I've linked it in my Pinterest boards.  You can also search the Lion Brand Yarn website for "hexagon bag" pattern.  The pattern is free, but you may have to create an account.) 

Piecing the hexagons

Finished hexagon bag


My last bag project isn't really a bag, but instead tags for bags.  Our family uses cloth bags in Christmas prints for gift giving in lieu of wrapping paper and boxes and paper gift bags.  They are reusable.  We have to use tags so that we know what gift goes to whom.  I was absent-minded and did not take a clear photo of the original tags, but they are plain red with red satin ribbons tied through holes to then loop through themselves to attach to the bag.  Each tag has a person's name written with permanent marker in the "TO" and other tags in the "FROM".  For example:  TO:  B  FROM: J Viola!  Bag tagged and ready to give.  The problem became giving gifts to people who did not have a pre-fab tag, the genesis of my sewing project yesterday.

Tagless bags
 

Detail around cutout

Finished bag

The tags are far from fancy, but I had fun making them and being creative.  I feel industrious and frugal.  What is the downside to spending the afternoon sewing just for fun?  



Holiday Boys to Men

My parents came for our Christmas celebration this weekend.  They arrived late on Friday evening, stayed up talking and playing, then we woke up and had our Christmas breakfast casserole, opened our gifts then had lunch together.  Typical, right?  Right.  How many of you can relate to the following progression watching our boys at holidays grow to men?

Out there and lovin' it.

In between:  candy in mouth with cocked eyebrow

Fully evolved

...That's the way the holiday starts

One simply cannot celebrate Christmas, especially with children, without holiday treats.  Some treats are only myade for special occasions.  After my first crack at Pinwheels this week, I know better why Mom only baked some of the cookies she did one time a year. 

Evolution of the Pinwheel cookie

As a child, I never realized that the dough had to be made, then refrigerated, next each color/flavor rolled out seperately, followed by being rolled together and another trip to the fridge before slicing and baking.  Yikes!  But, the cookies did end up being pretty.  Worth it?  Maybe not for eating, since they certainly aren't my favorite by flavor, but for looking at, I can appreciate its design, and now I appreciate Mom's special treats all the more. 

This song is for my mom and sister...

 

The kids put together a gingerbread house earlier this month.  It is now in a Tupperware container with some leftover peanut butter cookies that C made earlier this week.  After the kids nibbled on the house, it was too ugly to keep out on the counter, but it was fun having it sit out the first couple of days. 

Finished gingerbread house.  Yes, I DID buy the kit!  :)



The Pinwheels smell so yummy cooling on the counter.  Think I will test one to make sure they are good enough to share.  The things we mothers sacrifice. 

Ornaments

This angel lost her felt wings a few years ago, but she still holds a special place in my heart.

If you have kept track this month, you'll know that I am not adhering to my original plan.  I am enjoying writing off track however and I hope you are too.  Imagine while you are reading that you can smell the cinnamon snap cookies I just took out of the oven.  I've propped the oven door open and am gaining a little extra warmth in the kitchen.  My kids are quietly busy with their schoolwork.  I've just answered an email from my mother.  All is well with my world.

Some of my friends and family members have not decorated much this year for Christmas.  I understand that.  Last year, after just getting back from Belize, decorating seemed extravagant but at the same time we didn't want have nothing for the kids.  Thankfully they were old enough to drag out boxes and they did a fine job of making merry and putting up their favorite decorations.  They did a fantastic job, so this year, they did most of the "work" again.  H, insisted on having Christmas music play while he worked on the tree.  Check!  K carefully sorted through special ornaments.  Check!  C had the dreaded task of checking light strands and there were glimpses of a young boy from Cleveland in my living room except his reason for wanting the BB gun was to put the lights out.  He likes tackling the tough tasks and I am certainly appreciative.   Once again we stuck with the minimalist approach to the yuletide trimmings.

My dad's

There are certain ornaments that I favor.  This ornament is my dad's, which I now have.  Every year he is placed near the top of the tree.  He is delicate, so that is part of the reason he is placed so high.  Another is that it is part of my treasured heritage and I want to place this ornament in a prominent place.

My first Christmas.

 Other decorations are special because they represent my childhood and stir warm memories.  This little girl spent most of the year in a Whitman's Sampler box wrapped in Kleenex, but opening her box and hanging her on the tree by her knotted golden thread awakens my memories as a small girl.  I feel that I should be sharing that old and ugly brown chair with my sister, our feet barely reaching over the cushion, staring at our lit tree in the room with the red sheer curtains and red and black carpet.  Ugly room, beautiful memories.

The dove I crafted in VBS 1980 while my cousin made the mouse for me another time.

I take joy in ogling the elaborate themed trees as much as the next person and appreciate the time and effort and creativity, but to me, nothing really beats the nostalgia of a tree decorated with homemade trinkets.  I love the eclectic flavor of a tree that is covered with love and memories that no other tree on earth can share.  It is the difference of covering one's self with a store bought quilt or a quilt scrapped together from material that was leftover from a dress, or tablecloth, or curtains, or blouse with stories behind each block.  I see beauty in the unstructured color and arrangement of trees with ornaments with stories.  I see getting to share stories with my kids as we look at the tree.  I get to see them spinning their own stories with the ornaments that they make.  I envision them telling their children one day of their own special Christmases and decorating the tree. 

Green

Mistletoe

Red, white and green.  Silver and gold.  Colors of Christmas.  As I looked around our home today for "green", I realized that each item I saw represents a tradition for our family and/or for our culture.  Sometimes the tradition is like kissing under the mistletoe.  We are firm believers in grossing our kids out on a regular basis.  Sometimes we do not even bother to stand under the greenery!  Sometimes the tradition is simply that a particular decoration is hung or displayed in the same place every year.

Victorian tree in the entryway.

Sometimes the tradition belongs to the parents.  Perhaps it is something that is passed from from one generation to the next.  One of ours is that the Christmas story from the book of Luke is read every Christmas morning before stockings or presents are even touched.  Our hope is that this will become part of our (future) grandchildren's custom as well. 

A few traditions belong to the children.  Ours enjoy making silly poses for the nativity figures on the advent calendar.  They take turns every day sticking up a new animal or person and they rotate years so that everyone has a chance at putting Jesus on the board on Christmas morning.  C and K think that H is too silly sometimes and rearrange his day, but he always finds them out and puts his back.  This year we have sheep that are jumping into each other and a sheep kissing a cow. 

One of our advent calendars.
 

There is yet another kind of tradition--the one not kept.  I miss giving H his special ornament every year.  That tradition died out since so many were broken in storage.  (Perhaps I need to create a box for the ornaments and make sure the tree is bare before it is tucked away for the year.)  We used to buy the kids new pajamas.  I'm not sure why this stopped.  I remember as a girl Mom would make a paper chain with something new to do or craft every day.  I tried to pass this on with my kids, but it just became something they "had" to do and wasn't fun for them. 

Here I thought I wouldn't have much to say with the idea of "green", but as it turns out I've had a pleasant visit with Christmas Past.  OH!  That reminds me of another of my favorite Christmas traditions!  I love to watch A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott beginning at midnight on Christmas Eve.  I don't always accomplish this, so perhaps it is not technically tradition, but it is certainly something I desire to do every year. 

I would love to hear some of your traditions!